Taking a Break
by jeannyboy
Summary: Petra gets tired of Levi's obsessive cleaning habits and orders, and takes a short break to get out of the dust.


The wind that morning was rather chilly. It brushed Petra's sandy hair away from her face, and made her shiver a bit. In response to the cold wind, Petra wrapped her arms around her torso, pulling her green cloak around her as well. They had just finished a round of 'let's clean out the entire building until Levi thinks it's clean' and Petra snuck out escape the dust, it had her sneezing everywhere, and well, she needed some fresh air anyways. As much as she adored Levi, she did have a seed of doubt in her mind concerning Eren. He couldn't have been older than 15, and Levi was treating him rather harshly. But despite his rather troubling… condition, Petra wasn't that afraid of him. In fact, he was much like a younger brother, or nephew, that she didn't have. Well, she thought so anyway. "Hey Petra, what are you doing out here?" Eren asked from behind her, spooking her just a bit. Speak of the devil and he shall arrive. "I just needed a break from all the dust, did Levi finally let off the reins a bit?" she asked. "Not exactly, but I got really tired of cleaning the same room over and over, Levi really needs to back off on the whole 'cleaning' thing." Eren replied, to which Petra gave him a warm smile. "You should see him when he gets titan blood on his hands, it absolutely disgusts him, a lot of things do actually. He can be quite picky about what's clean and what's not." she said, laughing a bit to herself. "Haha, I just hope that he doesn't find that I snuck out, he'll probably have my head on a stick." Eren said, checking back over his shoulder just to be safe. "I think you're fine out here, if he finds us, then he can get mad at both of us. Although, you haven't seen him when he's mad have you?" Petra asked. "No…" Eren replied suspiciously. "Consider yourself lucky then, last time he exploded, he broke nearly everything in the entire area, and ended up giving Erwin a black eye, but I don't think he would get that mad at us." Petra said, looking towards the darkening sky, shivering a bit more at the bitter wind. "Wow, that sounds horrible. Here I was thinking he was mad when he beat me to a pulp in the courtroom." Eren said with a huff. "That was more for show than anything, he's not normally a mean person," struck by a sudden urge, Petra moved her hand to ruffle Eren's hair affectionately. "He just wanted to keep you safe." "Cut that out…" Eren replied half-heartedly, batting at her hand. She laughed, and continued to tease him, until they were both grinning and laughing at each other while Petra tried to pull Eren into a hug, and Eren was acting like a rebellious teenager, trying to escape. They play fought for a few minutes, Petra trying to ruffle his hair or hug him, and Eren fought her attempts, even though he was smiling. In those moments, Petra was struck with a sudden fondness, like one might have for a younger brother, and she suddenly wished she had one herself. Having a friend like this growing up, she would've enjoyed that very much. Petra and Eren both jumped nearly a foot in the air as a very annoyed voice coughed behind them. They both turned slowly, to see Levi's unamused expression glaring at them. "I thought I made it clear we were going to be cleaning today?" Levi spoke sternly, giving them each a hard look. Petra felt her cheeks heat up at his words, but as she went to reply, Levi spoke first. "I don't know what you two were up to, but if you both report to your stations right now, then I'll be sure not to give you the job of cleaning out the horse stables tomorrow morning." "Yes sir." Eren and Petra replied, heading back inside. As Petra passed Levi however, he stopped her. "Petra, why are you so fond of Jaeger?" he asked. Petra was taken aback for a second, Levi never really approached her or talked to her like this, and she had to cover her feelings of elation that began to build over talking to her superior over something so simple. "Well sir, he's still in his youth, and if I may add, I see him as a brother or other family, and we were just messing around while we took a break." she replied nervously, her heart beating erratically from the grip he still had on her arm. "Why did you leave your stations in the first place?" he asked again, his voice still stoic and emotionless. "All the dust in the air had started to bother me, and I couldn't stop sneezing, so I went outside for a small break, and Eren left because he said you were working him to hard." "Is that so? In that case I think I will have him clean the horse stables tomorrow." Levi answered, looking away. Petra stifled a laugh, instead making her face flush more. "That's not very nice, at the very least you should make Eld do it, it's been a while since he's had to. Don't you think you may be a bit harsh on him? He still is a kid." Petra replied, batting her eyelashes at him. Levi's face remained stoic, but she thought she saw a glimmer of something pass over his eyes in the briefest of moments as she did so. "I will consider it." he replied. "Aww, maybe there is still a heart in there after all!" Petra joked, laughing a bit. Levi looked like he wanted to comment, but instead said something that surprised her a bit. "You shouldn't baby him so much, the boy needs to grow up. He's not yet matured, and your coddling doesn't help." Levi said. Petra fell silent for a moment, it was very rare to hear Levi say something that was so close to trivial, it brought a smile to her face as she came up with a response. "I think that's what Eren needs though, that way he will learn to trust us. You shouldn't let your jealousy get in the way, if you wanted a hug all you would have to do is ask." Petra said in succession. Her words had just tumbled out, and when they did, her face turned red, had she really just said that? "I… I'm not…. jealous." Levi tripped on his words. Petra looked at him in amazement, Levi, their emotionless clean-freak of a leader had just stumbled on his words, she was shocked to say the least. "Right, well, I should head back to my post." Petra said after the silence hanging between them was festering with awkwardness and unspoken words. Levi just nodded in response, but what he didn't say to her as she walked off, was that maybe, deep down inside, he did want to be hugged by her. Not that he would ever admit that out loud. 


End file.
